Good morning, hello, how are you? Greetings from the Hyatt Place Southern Village on 15-501, room 432 if you wanna come by. Except I am quarantining. I mean, not really. Well, really, but not because I have been exposed, or have Covid or anything. Just being safe. Don’t want to get my sweet, doesn’t-want-to-poop-on-a-potty, unvaccinated daughter sick. Or my mother in law. One negative test down, three to go. I miss my baby. My wife misses the help.
So, New York got a little busy and I didn’t really have time to write. I had breakfasts on Tuesday and Wednesday, then had to catch my flight Thursday morning. Breakfast with Erica Kung on Tuesday and Noah Brier on Wednesday. Both were lovely. Erica and I went to Landmark, and I have a deep, deep nostalgia for that place, and Noah and I went to Balthazar, ditto, which was extra great because I was out rocking too late every night to do my old dinner-at-the-Balthazar-bar-counter routine, alas. Noah and I sat outside, which was also nice, because I got to experience this New York eating outside thing at least once before it goes away.
So, anyway, Tuesday I mainly worked from the hotel till 4:30, when I met my friend Alyssa and caught up, and then did Tom and Jerry’s all night, with a 90 minute break in the middle to sneak away to Mercury Lounge and see the first US show for Wet Leg, who were fantastic and hilarious and they have lots of songs besides the four they’ve released so far, and I mostly liked all of them! They were happy and having fun and self-deprecating and silly and sounded fantastic, even in Mercury Lounge. Yay Wet Leg. Plus they had free stickers.
Then back to Tom and Jerry’s and it was SO GREAT and I got to see SO MANY FRIENDS and it was just the best. Rex and Alice and Conrad and Wesley and Scott and Food and Chrysanthe and Rina again and Kevin again and Janelle and Zach and Seth and I am forgetting people and I hope and wish someone got to take pictures and it was super fun and I stayed there till like 2 AM even though I had a breakfast but I managed.
Wednesday Noah breakfast, and my lunch and dinner both cancelled on me, which was sad, but Tim Hwang did not cancel on me and Tim and I went up to the New York Historical Society to see the Robert Caro exhibit, which was very small but still pretty cool. They had one of his typewriters. There were lots of pages of illegible scribbles and notepads and they had his original pad of checkmarks of the race of people going to Jones Beach which has been a bit of a news item again these days because of one of the shittiest fact checking articles I have ever seen that just ignored that one of the dudes who did the racist stuff said explicitly “yeah we did racist stuff.” I love how first-person witness testimony is only evidence when people agree. This is a near universal truth of online arguing. But I digress. It was great to see Tim and we walked from the NYHS on 79th back down to Herald Square, mostly chatting about the apocalypse.
Then I got a burrito then lots of rest and then at 8:45 I met Flood at Brooklyn Steel for LCD Soundsystem. The line was very long. I heard a bouncer shout “you must have your original vax card no photos on your phone” except photos on your phone were totally fine, so, not really sure what was up with that dude. There is a budding entrepreneur who sells whipped balloons to the line before the show and the crowd after which adds a pretty hilarious sheen to the whole evening.
LCD were great, I am super bummed I did not get the setlist where they play “Big City (Everybody I Know Can Be Found Here)” by Spacemen 3 (if you’ve been following GMHHAY you know how excited I was about this), but I managed to enjoy all of the other great songs, including my favorites “Tribulations,” “Losing my Edge” and “You Wanted a Hit.” It is very weird to me that they are not doing “Christmas Can Break Your Heart” it seems like that’s a thing they should do at this residency. But anyway, it was great. My god, New York loves LCD Soundsystem. Conrad, Rex and I were talking about it and how they can sell out 20 nights in NYC but probably not any other city and the concept of a regional band and how it is maybe coming back, that was an interesting talk. Also, New Yorkers love “Dance Yrself Clean” so much. Just so much. They lost their shit for that one.
Oh and between the set and encore, they played the Law and Order theme, I kid you not.
Then I went back to the hotel, stopping for a slice and burning the roof of my mouth.
All the streets of New York smell like pot, always. It is so weird. They never smelled like smoke this much in the cigarette years, did they? Like New York air just smells like pot. One hundred percent of the time. I think there will be kids that just think that’s how outside smells. It’s really something.
Woke up, got my one and only good, actual New York breakfast sandwich, packed my bag and headed to the airport. The Delta lounge was filled with what I am now calling Beverage Loophole Scofflaws. But I got a good spot away from everyone. While walking to my gate, I saw this news stand, which really is the best name for a newsstand at Laguardia:
Read my Graeber/Wengrow on the plane, I am almost done. I have thoughts. But they are not for today. Then I left the exit at RDU and I looked up, as I always used to, and for a minute, I thought there were no balloons. But there were three. So, you know. We’re not all the way back from the pandemic, but we seem to be a little bit back, at least on the RDU Balloon Scale.
And now, I am chilling at my hotel. It is lovely. I watched part 2 of Get Back last night. Billy Preston is now the hero. My feet were cold so I went home and Emma came out from the house and put some slippers in my car, like I was at a store doing pickup. It is absurd, but I’m not gonna complain. And now I get to go have some of the mediocre hotel breakfast!
Let’s do a mix, shall we? I was gonna put all the bands I saw this week on here, but there are only four Wet Leg songs out on the internet, and I feel like I’ve put them on my mixes enough in the last few weeks, so we’re mixing it up.
Tuesday was such a fun evening! Man.